1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus capable of performing automatic zoom control.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a subject recognition technique and a face recognition technique have been mounted on imaging apparatuses such as digital cameras. Such imaging apparatuses perform control such as focusing point movement, release control, and image quality parameter change according to results of subject and face recognitions.
As described below, automatic zoom control based on the subject recognition technique is known.
A conventionally known television camera apparatus reduces camera operator's burden by calculating an on-screen position and a size of a recognized subject image and automatically controlling a camera position and a zoom distance following subject's motion to achieve a preset photographing composition.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-86269 discusses a camera apparatus including a distance measurement unit for measuring a distance to a subject, a storage unit for storing a table in which of object size data is set in advance, and a photographing composition selection unit for selecting a plurality of photographing compositions. The camera apparatus performs zoom control according to the object size and the photographing composition to automatically capture an image of the subject with a suitable size.
Although the above-described automatic zoom control function is intended for automatic zooming so that a subject image becomes a predetermined size, the inclination of the subject is not taken into consideration. Therefore, the automatic zoom control function cannot suitably perform zoom control according to a subject-based photographing composition with which a predetermined range of the subject image fits into the angle of view, such as upper body close-up and entire body images. The photographing angle of view generally has unequal vertical and horizontal lengths. Therefore, even if zoom control for equalizing the face size is performed, the photographing composition of a captured image differs according to whether the subject is inclined or not.